I Need Help (please) Options

[Rhapsedy]

After the short burst of Prednisone, then a person or fur kid can be treated in a more conventional manner and ongoing to keep everything under control.

Callaway was on a small dose of predisolone for awhile. Was it ok for him to be on predisolone for an extended time? Now I'm worried that I gave him too much.

[Brutus]

Hi Rhapsedy...I'm not a doctor or nurse...nor do I portray one on TV..lol...yes pred is usually given in a short term but had Callaway not had it, he would not have had the last quality of life that he did have....Brutus had mast cell cancer twice and pred is what they gave him...he was on it about 6 months each time. My father has been on pred for over 8 years, without he would die..he will be on it until he passes. You did everything right with Callaway, so try not to second guess...I know how hard this is to not do.

Hugs,
Brutus' Mom

[AngelCareOne]

After the short burst of Prednisone, then a person or fur kid can be treated in a more conventional manner and ongoing to keep everything under control.

Callaway was on a small dose of predisolone for awhile. Was it ok for him to be on predisolone for an extended time? Now I'm worried that I gave him too much.

Hi Rhapsedy,

My apologies. I can certainly see how my explanation was confusing because I didn't go into treatment with Predisone or any other type of medication for a person or animal who has either a life threatening or terminal disease or condition.

Firstly, I only spoke about those people and animals who have conditions such as allergies, asthma, acne, arthritis and so on. Those conditions, disorders, are practically always not life threatening and not terminal in nature. So, when people or animals are being treated for those conditions by use of conventional treatment and medications which they take daily ... But, they suddenly have a flare up ... That is when that short burst of Prednisone is prescribed for that seven to ten days in order to get their symptoms back under control, then weaned off on the last 3 days of that short burst of Predisone once their flare up has been contained and gotten under control. At that point in time, patients return to taking their normal medication or medications on a daily basis. It works great for them ...

However, when a patient, be it human or animal, has a serious disease like lymphoma which is most definitely life threatening in nature, then those short bursts of Prednisone at a low dose will not do. They require ongoing treatment with Predisone in order to keep at bay the symptoms caused by this disease. In other words, a strong or perhaps not so strong but most definitely ongoing and not a short burst. The Prednisone ought be taken regularly and not stopped unless ... Well, unless your doctor or vet deems that they need something even stronger or differnt or ... I hope I'm making sense ...

Am I explaining this well? I only just woke, came here, saw your question and began typing. Please, do not hesitate to ask me to be more specific or give you links to actual case histories or even go into greater detail without using medical terms like "augment" since augment is actually the perfect word to use when tell you how your Sweet Callaway's life was extended measurable and with great quality due to the amount and daily doses of Prednisone. Please let me know if I explained it to your understanding and, if not, I'll have a cup of hot tea and try again. I just wanted to get this off to you as soon as possible, Rhapsedy.

Many Comforting Hugs to you and Angel Fur Kid Callaway!!!

Always,
Dottie xoxoxox

[AngelCareOne]

Hi Rhapsedy...I'm not a doctor or nurse...nor do I portray one on TV..lol...yes pred is usually given in a short term but had Callaway not had it, he would not have had the last quality of life that he did have....Brutus had mast cell cancer twice and pred is what they gave him...he was on it about 6 months each time. My father has been on pred for over 8 years, without he would die..he will be on it until he passes. You did everything right with Callaway, so try not to second guess...I know how hard this is to not do.

Hugs,
Brutus' Mom

Thank you, Sonya!

Sonya said it well, is spot on correct and a whole lot less winded than myself.

More Hugs to you, Angel Fur Kids Callaway, Noushka and Tasha!!!

I Wish You Peace!



Always,
Dottie xoxoxox

[Rhapsedy]

Hi Dottie,

Thanks for the clarification. I feel much better knowing that I was following the right form of treatment with Predisolone. I could have tried chemo but because of Callaway's age (14) and the fact that he stressed out so bad when he went to the vet I decided that chemo wouldn't be a good option for him.

Thank you so much for all of your support. I feel so lucky to have found this website.

[Rhapsedy]

Hi Sonya,

Thank you so much for the response. I am so emotional right now that I question everything I did and didn't do. I keep thinking of the saying... That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger... I should be as emotionally strong as Mike Tyson is physically strong after this. ;-)

Thank you so much for your support. I hope that someday soon I can be as supportive to others as you have been to me this past week.

Hi Rhapsedy...I'm not a doctor or nurse...nor do I portray one on TV..lol...yes pred is usually given in a short term but had Callaway not had it, he would not have had the last quality of life that he did have....Brutus had mast cell cancer twice and pred is what they gave him...he was on it about 6 months each time. My father has been on pred for over 8 years, without he would die..he will be on it until he passes. You did everything right with Callaway, so try not to second guess...I know how hard this is to not do.

Hugs,
Brutus' Mom

[smokey/lady/max]

Hi Rhapsedy I dont think there is any such thing as right or wrong. You question yourself giving predisone and I question myself not giving it. But please feel good knowing you had some more extended time with it. I hate myself for not taking that extra time that it would have gave me. That is what I am such a mess over. If my husband had not been with me I would have brought my baby home and gave him the predisone. All he kept saying was why was I putting off the same out come and what if he got sicker and didnt want to eat and started throwing up. The only reason I didnt stand my ground was the fact that Max was bleeding when he went to the bathroom. So please dont be down on yourself for the extra time you had. I would give anything right now to have had even a week or day longer. You did in your heart what you felt right. Beleive me my heart wanted to do the same.

Take Care
Anna

[Rhapsedy]

Hi Anna,

My vet told me that pred doesn't work for some dogs so it may not have helped Max. We both need to keep telling ourselves that we both did what we thought was best for our dogs and everything we did for them was out of love. We sure didn't put them to sleep for us, we did a selfless act, put our feelings aside and put them out of their misery. Unfortunately, we now have to live without them and with that grief, for some, comes guilt, which you and I are feeling.

As you said there isn't any such thing as right or wrong. So we both need to be nicer to ourselves and realize that our choices were made for our babies and that everything we did was done in their best interest.

I will pray for you tonight... that you will find peace.

Rhapsedy


Hi Rhapsedy I dont think there is any such thing as right or wrong. You question yourself giving predisone and I question myself not giving it. But please feel good knowing you had some more extended time with it. I hate myself for not taking that extra time that it would have gave me. That is what I am such a mess over. If my husband had not been with me I would have brought my baby home and gave him the predisone. All he kept saying was why was I putting off the same out come and what if he got sicker and didnt want to eat and started throwing up. The only reason I didnt stand my ground was the fact that Max was bleeding when he went to the bathroom. So please dont be down on yourself for the extra time you had. I would give anything right now to have had even a week or day longer. You did in your heart what you felt right. Beleive me my heart wanted to do the same.

Take Care
Anna
[/quote]

[Brutus]

hate myself for not taking that extra time that it would have gave me. That is what I am such a mess over. If my husband had not been with me I would have brought my baby home and gave him the predisone. All he kept saying was why was I putting off the same out come and what if he got sicker and didnt want to eat and started throwing up. The only reason I didnt stand my ground was the fact that Max was bleeding when he went to the bathroom. So please dont be down on yourself for the extra time you had. I would give anything right now to have had even a week or day longer. You did in your heart what you felt right. Beleive me my heart wanted to do the same.

Dear Anna...Rhapsedy is right, pred doesn't always work. Brutus had a very common, easily treated cancer when caught early..starts as a pimple looking thing, totally different than lymphonia or what Max was dealing with. Pred is only a mask..it treats symptoms but doesn't usually cure anything...Dottie can verify that. Hang in there Anna...I am thinking of you and Max...I know you would give up anything to have him with you again, my thoughts and prayers are with you as you deal with this difficult time...we are all here for you.

Hugs,
Brutus' Mom

[ladywolf]

Hi Rhapsody and everyone--

Here's hoping that you managed to have a very merry Christmas, in spite of your recent loss.

Just thinking of you in this time when everyone seems to be of good cheer, and it ain't necessarily so for us...

I drove by the place today where Poppers is buried out in the desert, and my friend Janice and Ladywolf and I tipped our hats to her, then we went off into the middle of nowhere and had a Christmas picnic. It was a gourgeous day, and I tried to stay focussed on what I DO have, not what I've lost, and it worked pretty well. (Among other things, I had my entire house emptied out about four years ago by my landlord while I was sick and just out of the hospital. Everything was taken. EVERYTHING. Thank god the dogs were safe with me, in another state at the time.)

Blessings to you and your's from Margi and Lwolf

[Rhapsedy]

Hi Margi,

That sounds like a lovely way to spend Christmas. I'm glad you enjoyed your day. I did pretty well today, I only cried once when I got cards from the dogs and Callaway's name wasn't on them. I know my husband meant well, he probably thought that I would get cry if his name was on the cards, either way it would have made me cry.

My psycologist told me to say a couple of words when I'm thinking of negative things, she told me to say not helpful. This has really helped me to stop obsessing about what I feel I did wrong. I say those two words to change my train of thought. I thought this may help some people too.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Love to all,
Rhapsedy


Hi Rhapsody and everyone--

Here's hoping that you managed to have a very merry Christmas, in spite of your recent loss.

Just thinking of you in this time when everyone seems to be of good cheer, and it ain't necessarily so for us...

I drove by the place today where Poppers is buried out in the desert, and my friend Janice and Ladywolf and I tipped our hats to her, then we went off into the middle of nowhere and had a Christmas picnic. It was a gourgeous day, and I tried to stay focussed on what I DO have, not what I've lost, and it worked pretty well. (Among other things, I had my entire house emptied out about four years ago by my landlord while I was sick and just out of the hospital. Everything was taken. EVERYTHING. Thank god the dogs were safe with me, in another state at the time.)

Blessings to you and your's from Margi and Lwolf

[ladywolf]

Rhapsody:

"Not helpful" is a wonderful, helpful phrase! So is "Thank you for sharing, now please go away..."

Another trick is to spend ten minutes a day obsessing, I mean really OBSESSING on everything that you think went wrong. And then for the other 23 hours and 50 minutes, you don't let those thoughts in...you say to them, "wait til 5:00 p.m.", or whatever your "obsession" time is. That one can work like a charm.

I'm glad you had a good day, but gads, if anyone had given me a card from my remaining Wolfie and not Poppers, I would have bawled like a baby! If you toughed that out, you're getting stronger!

Big Hugs--Margi

[ladywolf]

Dear Rhapsody--

Just checking in to see how you're doing these days? Is the guilt easing up just a little? I find other peoples' stories here so helpful, since they remind me of the multitude of weird things that can happen at the end of our dogs' and cats' and birds' (and velociraptors?) lives. Few seem to get off easily.

Wanting to send renewed blessings--

Margi and LWolf

[Rhapsedy]

Hi Margi,

The guilt still seems to have some control over me. I still wish I would have let Callaway go on his own but that may have been a worse death fo him. I just have a problem with me making the decision to end his life and play the whole thing over and over in my mind.

How are you doing?

[smokey/lady/max]

Hi Rhapsedy, I know exactly how you feel. The guilt is so much worse then the grief. It will be 4 weeks come wensday and god the guilt just wont let up. I cry everyday wishing I could just take back what I did. I feel like I ended his life not his desease. I just feel in my heart I didnt do the right thing. Everyone can say that I did what was best but I will never ever feel that I did. The best would have been bring him home give him medicine and see how he would have been. I may of had a month or longer but now I will never know. I could have had time to explore all options do more test but now I have none of that. I am left with awful feelings that just wont go away. When we put our lady down 7 years ago it also was a sudden sickness. It was her liver and I signed the papers and my husband and I left her there. He could not handle it at all she was his everything. I still to this day feel guilty that we did not stay with her my last vision of her was her turning her head and looking at me writting the check to end her life. That vision still comes to me. My smokey was just three years ago and with him as they gave him a sedative to relax him he turned and looked right at me like to say goodbye. I left the room and told my husband to tell them not to do anything until I came back. When I opened the door they had already administered the needle and he was gone so I didnt get to hold him in his last minutes. So I also carry that guilt, my husband was there with him but he was my baby. Now this with my Max it is almost to much to handle. I did get to hold and tell him how much I loved him and sang to him as he went to sleep forever. God forever seems forever and so final. Sorry just crying my eyes out. I hurts so bad like a knife in your heart. I hope our babies truly knew how much we loved them. I dont mean to depress you but it feels good knowing that there are people like ourselves who can understand.

Feeling and understanding your pain
Anna

[Rhapsedy]

Hi Anna,

You are so right about the guilt being worse than the grief. I feel like I could accept Callaway's death if I didn't feel like I ended his life too soon. Of course, I miss him terribly but it would be a little easier if I didn't have the constant thoughts of guilt.

I have had so many people tell me that I did the right thing too and I sure wish I could believe them.

I have tried to think about everything I did right for Callaway but the damn guilty feelings come along and they overpower my positive thoughts.

I am so sorry that you are going thru the same thing that I am... I would not wish this pain on anyone. But as you said it does help to know there are people on this website that understand our pain.

Love to you, Smokey, Lady, and Max

[Brutus]

Dear Rhapsedy...hoping this New Year finds you in peace and happy memories of your sweet Callaway.

Hugs,
Sonya

[cricket]

Rhapsedy, I hope your grief over losing Callaway has eased. In my opinion, when you find your pet lying in a pool of unine, you are very close to the end. They would never do that, if it could be avoided - and it must be so embarassing.

We've had to euthanize two cats - one twenty, the other nineteen - in five months. Our vet gives the pet an injection, to relax. That way, his last memories will be of you petting and cuddling him. In five minutes, when your pet is sleeping, he returns for the final injection; shaves a front leg, and puts the fur in a bag for you to take home. Then, if there's any difficulty finding a vein, your pet won't feel it.

I'm sure Callaway knew how you felt. Best wishes....

[Rhapsedy]

I sure I wish I would have known about the injection you are talking about. I will be haunted for the rest of my life by the fact that I didn't know more about euthanasia and that I could have made Callaway's last moments so much better for him. I really feel like I let him down.

Our vet gives the pet an injection, to relax. That way, his last memories will be of you petting and cuddling him. In five minutes, when your pet is sleeping, he returns for the final injection; shaves a front leg, and puts the fur in a bag for you to take home. Then, if there's any difficulty finding a vein, your pet won't feel it.

[smokey/lady/max]

Hi Rhapsedy,

We need to stop blameing ourselves at least I try to tell myself that anyways. Everything about euthanasia is so dam hard to except. Did we do it at the right time, in your case why didn't you know about a shot to relax him, why did we even do it at all. We could go on with a list of things and believe me I do everyday. The only thing I know is we did what we thought was right at that time. Now we just need time to make it right for us. How long will that be, who knows but all I know I am glad we do have each other. The way we feel there is NO WAY that our angels has any doubt how much we loved them. Hope we can find peace within ourselves soon.

Take Care
Anna